Chancellor must keep his word

A supporter of new businesses has urged the Chancellor, George Osborne, to stick to his promise to “light the fires of enterprise.”

Dawn Cheetham, of Commercial Kitchen Services (CKS) based in Blackpool, said the pro-enterprise package laid out in last week’s announcement needed to be long-standing.

The Chancellor announced major reforms to business rates, a major issue for small and start-up businesses, promising 630,000 would not pay rates at all from next year.

CKS is sponsoring the New Business of the Year award at this year’s Be Inspired Business Awards, the BIBAs, one of the leading business awards in Lancashire.

Mrs Cheetham said: “The Budget had a lot to offer for small businesses which appear to have been the biggest winners from the Chancellor’s announcement.

“I think the real test will now be whether he can stick to his vow to ‘light the fire of enterprise’ under British business.

“We all know that supporting entrepreneurs starting up new businesses is the future of our economy and is something we need to keep our economy vibrant and growing.

“What we have heard from the Chancellor is extremely positive, now he has to show us there is no Devil in the detail of his announcement.”

The BIBAs is now open for applications with the deadline for entries due to close on Friday, April 8.

Kabo Hockey, the sportswear provider based in Buckshaw Village, near Chorley, is the holder of the New Business of the Year title.

In 2015, Ian Hall, the chairman of Preston-based retail group James Hall and Son, collected the lifetime achievement prize, Lancastrian of the Year, when the BIBAs handed out its prizes in front of a sell-out crowd at the Blackpool Tower in September.

Social enterprise Jobs Friends and Houses CIC, which works with ex-offenders, won its Most Inspiring Business of the Year prize and individual prizes went to Phil Lawson of Skelmersdale’s Virtue Technologies, who won Entrepreneur of the Year and Louise Wilkinson, who runs Nelson-based Lomeshaye Village Day Nursery, who was named Business Woman of the Year.